Cuddles Cafe
—Ace
Eltz Castle
Golden retrievers being goofy.
Bear cubs orphaned by a fire, and separated since the fire, are finally reunited.
Cats ignore you until it's time to play and no you don't get a vote.
Swan mother is very proud of her first egg.
Dog enjoys a light beating.
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Trump Signs Executive Order to Speed Up Rebuilding LA
—Ace
I don't know if he can do this but someone needs to do something.
President Trump is sidestepping thumb-twiddling California Democrats with an executive order aimed at fast-tracking the rebuilding of Los Angeles a year after devastating wildfires torched entire city blocks and left thousands homeless."I want to see if we can take over the city and state and just give the people their permits they want to build," Trump told the California Post Friday in an exclusive Oval Office interview when he signed the seven-page order.
Trump pointed the finger at California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for the painfully slow rebuilding of homes ravaged by the January 2025 Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires, two of the most destructive blazes in LA history.Wildfires destroyed an estimated 16,000 structures, but Los Angeles city and county officials have only issued 2,600 permits to rebuild so far.
In all, less than 15% of all homes destroyed by the fires have received necessary approvals to move forward, according to the Trump administration.Trump's order is designed to "preempt" the building permit process -- and empower the federal government to maneuver around the needless obstacles imposed by Democratic leaders.
The order calls out the "nightmare" of delays and "bureaucratic malaise" at the California state and local levels -- and it will almost certainly be challenged by Democrats in power in the Golden State, despite displaced residents literally crying out to be made whole again.
Jessica Rogers, a Pacific Palisades resident who lost everything in the wildfires, burst into tears of joy when she learned the federal government was stepping in to pick up the slack.
...
Trump, a former real estate developer, said he was compelled to step in after touring the fire damage a year ago with first lady Melania Trump and seeing the devastation firsthand. He said he was shocked to see that even a year later, "there's nobody building."
...
Under the order, the heads of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) will issue regulations to preempt state and local permitting requirements and allow builders to self-certify to a federal agency that they have complied with health, safety and building standards.
Like I said, I can't imagine Trump has any power like this. The feds can't just set aside state laws. Even if the state in question is a basket-case run by lunatics.
...Newsom spokeswoman Tara Gallegos hit back at Trump, calling the president "an old clueless idiot who believes that the state and federal governments can issue local rebuilding permits and LA gets its water from the Pacific Northwest."
Gallegos said Trump has "demonstrated a complete lack of leadership or compassion for this community." She charged Trump is concerned with "picking out gaudy gold décor and new flooring for his unnecessary remodel" as the community is "still waiting for him to grant disaster recovery funding.
"He should keep LA out of his mouth unless he is planning to grant them the federal disaster funding they need."
Such tough-guys!
An Investigation Into Ilhan Omar's Sudden Fortune and Foreign Dealings Was Opened -- Under the Biden Administration
—Ace
And when the Corruption Hawks of the Biden Administration think that you're grifting money from foreign interests, you're shadier than a $400,000 Hunter Biden "watercolor."
The Justice Department under the Biden administration opened an investigation into Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, in 2024 to scrutinize her finances, campaign spending and interactions with a foreign citizen, according to people with knowledge of the matter.The inquiry, initiated by the U.S. attorney's office in Washington and the department's public integrity unit in June of that year, appears to have stalled for lack of evidence, according to one of the people who requested anonymity to discuss internal department matters.
Uh-huh.
The investigation appeared to be thrust into the public spotlight on Monday, when President Trump blindsided department officials by posting about it on Truth Social, singling out Ms. Omar. It was part of a rambling statement announcing a shake-up of the team overseeing immigration raids in Ms. Omar's Minneapolis district that misspelled her name."The DOJ and Congress are looking at 'Congresswoman' Illhan Omar, who left Somalia with NOTHING, and is now reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars," he wrote. "Time will tell all."
It was not clear whether Mr. Trump was referring to another investigation altogether or how he arrived at the $44 million figure.
Ms. Omar, a Somali-born refugee who emigrated to the United States when she was 12, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
"Sorry, Trump, your support is collapsing and you're panicking," she wrote on social media on Monday. "Right on cue, you're deflecting from your failures with lies and conspiracy theories about me. Years of 'investigations' have found nothing."
...Ugly personal attacks against Ms. Omar have been a staple of Mr. Trump's speeches since her election to Congress in 2018, when she and Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, made history as the first two Muslim women elected to Congress.
Ms. Omar's sharp criticism of Israel, her repetition of antisemitic tropes and her comparison of U.S. actions to those of Hamas have elicited bipartisan criticism.
But few people have demonized her more than Mr. Trump, who has veered into racist and xenophobic vitriol, in the view of Ms. Omar and other critics of the president.
...
In recent weeks, House Republicans have threatened to open their own investigation into Ms. Omar, an apparent effort to tie her to the Minnesota fraud scandal that has revealed evidence that some members of the Somali community set up companies that billed state agencies for social services that were never provided.
Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has vowed to subpoena Ms. Omar's husband. His venture capital firm made millions over the past few years, according to Ms. Omar's financial disclosures.
No evidence has yet been produced showing that Ms. Omar was connected to the fraud scheme. A spokeswoman for Ms. Omar said her office had received no official inquiries from the Oversight Committee or the Justice Department.
Mr. Comer is still seeking to raise ethical questions about how Ms. Omar's husband has been able to accumulate his wealth and he has promised an update on a potential investigation soon.
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MSNBC Airs Fake Photo of Dead "Protester" Alex Pretti, Modified by AI to Make Him Look More Masculine, Handsome, and Heroic
—Ace
NottheBee has a hilarious recap of this latest propaganda from "MSNOW."
Before getting to that: Although the media keeps referring to this terrorist as an "ICU nurse," the truth is he was an unemployed bum who quit his job to be a full-time paid agitator.
And he's a violent agitator:
Julie Kelly @julie_kelly2NEW: CNN reporting that Alex Pretti broke a rib during a separate altercation with federal officers a week before he was fatally shot attempting to obstruct an immigration operation.
According to sources, Pretti was already known to federal authorities for his involvement in obstructing raids and targeting officers.
CNN: "The earlier incident started when he stopped his car after observing ICE agents chasing what he described as a family on foot, and began shouting and blowing his whistle, according to a source who asked not to be named out of fear of retribution.
Pretti later told the source that five agents tackled him and one leaned on his back -- an encounter that left him with a broken rib. The agents quickly released him at the scene. Pretti was later given medication consistent with treating a broken rib, according to records reviewed by CNN."
OH.
Here's Pretti.
"State law requires me to inform you I have moved into your neighborhood"
Below, the real photo of the dead "protester" and his "Alpha Chad" AI Deepfake.
The AI photo makes him look like he hoists tankards of magical mead after fighting side-by-side with Thor.
The real photo shows a cashew-headed dweeb who has his penis nice and tucked for a night out cruising at the local playground.
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Tim Walz: ICE Arresting Illegal Alien Killers and Rapists Is Just Like the Nazis Hunting Anne Frank; CNN Guest: ICE Is Going to Start Putting People "In Ovens"
—Ace
The Party of Smart People, everybody.
Tim Walz stunned reporters Sunday by comparing illegal aliens facing ICE enforcement in Minnesota to Anne Frank hiding from the Nazis, reaching for a Holocaust analogy as he attacked President Trump's immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities.Standing before reporters, Walz claimed that children across Minnesota are now afraid to leave their homes because of the administration's expanded ICE presence. "We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside," he said, invoking Anne Frank's diary as a parallel. "Many of us grew up reading that story. Somebody's going to write that children's story about Minnesota."
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FIRE ALL AWFLs: Virginia Nurse Says She'll Use Drugs to Paralyze and Poison ICE Agents
—Ace
She works for VCU Health -- which says that her calls to paralyze and poison people are "inappropriate" and under investigation, but they have not fired her.
She's currently suspended and not in a position to poison patients -- but no firing.
Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktokMeet Melinda, a healthcare worker at @VCUHealth. She posted a series of videos encouraging people to inject ICE agents with succinylocholine, a temporary paralysis drug, and spray poison on them. She also encourages woman to go on dates with agents and drug their food.
Any comment @VCUHealth
? How can you have such a vile person working with patients? How can anyone feel safe at your facilities if you employ such people?
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Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Overrules Lawless Lowly District Judicial Insurrectionist, Removing Bullshit Restrictions on How ICE Can Handle Violent "Protesters"
—Ace
Who knows, it's possible that this judge's lawless diktat that "protesters" should be allowed to be violent and ICE is barred from responding with non-lethal munitions like tear gas and pepper spray actually led to the death of the violent protesters.
A federal appeals court on Monday stepped in to stop what the Trump administration argued was an extraordinary act of judicial overreach, blocking a Minnesota order that effectively handcuffed federal immigration agents during enforcement operations.The three-judge panel on the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Trump administration and issued a full stay of a January injunction that had restricted how officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement could respond while facing aggressive anti-ICE protests.
That lower-court order barred agents from making arrests, detaining individuals, or using pepper spray during confrontations unless heightened legal thresholds were met--rules critics warned would put officers at risk as agitators pressed into enforcement scenes.
The lowly district court judge and insurrectionist had claimed, in the face of all evidence, that the "protesters" were all uniformly peaceful and therefore ICE was barred from using any non-lethal force against them.
Reviewing the same video evidence cited by the district court, the appeals panel flatly rejected the idea that the encounters were uniformly peaceful, writing that the footage showed "a wide range of conduct, some of it peaceful but much of it not," with agents responding to rapidly changing situations.
...U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez had accepted [violent "protesters'"] claims on January 16, finding the plaintiffs likely to succeed on First and Fourth Amendment grounds and issuing a sweeping injunction against the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.
Her ruling cited alleged instances in which agents used pepper spray, pointed weapons, made arrests, and conducted traffic stops against individuals she characterized as peacefully observing or protesting enforcement activity.
The appeals court was unmoved, emphasizing that the encounters varied widely--different officers, different protesters, different behavior, different locations--making a blanket prohibition not only unworkable but dangerous.
Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the decision as a decisive stand for law enforcement.
"Liberal judges tried to handcuff our federal law enforcement officers, restrict their actions, and put their safety at risk when responding to violent agitators," Bondi wrote on X, noting that the Justice Department first secured a temporary pause and has now won a full stay.
In the meanwhile, Kash Patel says he's following the money and the FBI is investigating who is funding these violent revolutionary groups.
He also says the FBI is continuing to investigate the fraud network.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Monday the bureau has identified people and groups who are funding leftist protests aimed at Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Minnesota.
During an appearance on conservative commentator Benny Johnson's podcast, Patel confirmed that the FBI's investigation into the unrest is active and expanding.
"We've got ... investigations ongoing into the funding of this," Patel told Johnson, stressing that the protests are "not happening organically" and that investigators have made "substantial progress" in uncovering groups and individuals financially backing them.
Patel also asserted that federal authorities are examining encrypted left-wing chats connected to protest organizers in Minnesota -- warning those involved that they "should be worried" if they have violated federal statutes.
Some people are asking: Is this insurrection being staged not to protect illegal aliens but to protect the Democrat Party's fraud-farmers in blue cities?
In other words, are they attempting to block further investigation of the Somali and other organized crime looting of the federal treasury?
If this is just about protecting criminal illegals, why did the violent "protests" not begin until after the Nick Shirley revelations?!
Arthur MacWaters @ArthurMacwatersLet me get this straight:
1. prior administrations deported millions of people, and riots were basically nonexistent
2. the moment trump took office, a coordinated campaign by politicians/legacy media *directly called for resistance to ICE*
3. once riots happen and people are die, the spotlight shifts to stopping deportations and defunding ICE
If this was such a crime against humanity, why did no one riot in 2024?
The intention behind the unrest is NOT empathy.
Empathy is being manufactured on false grounds to achieve political aims. And people are getting hurt.
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Internet Claims: Chinese PM Xi Plotted Purge of Chinese Military, So the Military Plotted a Coup and Kidnapping. But Then Xi Launched a Counter-Coup.
—Ace
Allegedly.
The claims of an actual coup attempt, with senior military leaders plotting to kidnap Xi, is an internet-based claim without any legacy media confirmation.
So far.
The senior ranks of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) are in tatters.The weekend purging of China's top general, Zhang Youxia, and another senior military officer, Gen Liu Zhenli, has left serious questions about what triggered the elite power struggles unfolding in the country - and what this means for China's warfighting capacity, whether it be any ambition to take Taiwan by force or engage in another major regional conflict.
Zhang, 75, was vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) - the Communist Party group headed by the country's leader Xi Jinping, which controls the armed forces.
The CMC, usually made up of around seven people, has now been whittled down to just two members - Xi and Gen Zhang Shengmin.
All others have been taken down in the "anti-corruption" crackdown following previous waves of detention.
The CMC is responsible for controlling millions of military personnel. It is so powerful that when Deng Xiaoping was the paramount leader of the country during the 1980s, this was the only position he held for most of that time.
That only Xi and one CMC general remain is unprecedented, according to Lyle Morris from the Asia Society Policy Institute.
"The PLA is in disarray," he told the BBC, adding that China's military now had "a major leadership void".
Asked what was really driving the culling of so many top generals, he said: "There are a lot of rumours floating around. We don't know, at this point, what is true and what is false... but it is certainly bad for Xi Jinping, for his leadership and control over the PLA."
Associate Professor Chong Ja Ian from the National University of Singapore also said he was not sure what the real reason was for Zhang's downfall but that there was a lot of speculation about it.
"Everything from leaking nuclear secrets to the United States to plotting a coup and factional infighting. There are even rumours of a gunfight in Beijing," he said.
"But Zhang and Liu's downfall along with the wild speculation highlight two things: that Xi remains unassailable and there are significant limits to information in Beijing which fuels uncertainty and feeds this speculation."
The official announcement that said Zhang and Liu were "under investigation" also said that they were accused of "serious violations of discipline and law", which is a euphemism for corruption.
...
The targeting of the generals may be about corruption, but it may also be about power politics, given how these purges have panned out in the past.
...
Xi may have stamped his authority, yet again, but the upheaval means ongoing frictions, he said.
"It's certainly a bad look for Xi and I think there's going to be significant turmoil in the PLA, with Xi and his leaders -- especially in the PLA -- for years to come."
The purging of the most senior generals also brings scrutiny on the next layer of officers who may be wondering who is next?
Twitter accounts claim -- again, without confirmation by the fake media -- that the military leaders Xi was about to arrest for corruption decided to strike first and kidnap Xi, but Xi got wind of this and arrested them first.
Cryptoanarhist @manaxer2A coup d'etat is being prepared in China.
What happened? I explain:
-- The largest purge of China's military leadership in half a century has recently begun. Generals are being prosecuted on charges of corruption and state crimes.
-- Even General Zhang Youxia, who was considered Xi's right-hand man, was accused of treason for spying on the United States.
-- Unconfirmed information is also circulating online about the suppression of an attempted military coup and an assassination attempt on Xi Jinping himself.
-- There is an active movement of military convoys in the direction of Beijing, now they are located 40 kilometers from the center of Beijing.
-- Local media reports that some of the equipment has already reached Beijing, and armed men have taken control of the historic Forbidden City
-- Along with this, there are reports that the existing PLA system has been stopped and replaced by the direct command of the Central Military Council using encrypted telegrams.
-- All units throughout the army have moved to the first level of combat readiness.
In addition, against the background of the events, Taiwan said it was closely monitoring "abnormal" changes in China's military leadership and urged Japanese fishermen to refrain from visiting islands disputed with China.
What do you think, will there be changes in our political system?
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The Morning Rant: Hickory Shampoos For The Win!
—CBD
The recent shootings in Minnesota are a natural result of the breakdown in respect for the legitimate activity of government, and the blurring of the line between legitimate protest against government policy, and violent action to force political change. That it is financed and managed by outside actors is made possible by the failures in our educational systems and our body politic...both have failed to support and defend the political philosophy that created American Exceptionalism
Americans have had numerous avenues to express disagreement with public policy and government behavior. Obviously, the first and most important way is simply to vote. We also have robust legal protections of our right to speak freely and criticize anything in society with which we disagree. And protest is a tried and true American tradition!
For instance, the non-violent protests against legal segregation (separate but equal) focused the country on its fundamental inequality. Yet the violent protests probably prolonged the fight for civil rights! The Supreme Court ruling which struck it down was rejected by some, most famously by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, who instructed the National Guard to block integration. President Eisenhower promptly nationalized the Arkansas Guard to end the challenge to legitimate federal government authority and action.
Regardless of what one might think of America's integration efforts (it has been a mixed bag at best), it is a legitimate expression of the will of the people and the equally legitimate action on the part of government.
The massive demonstrations and other legitimate political activity against unfettered abortion bore fruit after many years. The process worked...albeit very, very slowly!
According to the compliant media, many Americans disagree with the current administration's policy on immigration, and are against their efforts and methods to detain and deport illegal aliens who are also violent felons.
Whether that estimation is true is a matter of debate...I doubt very much that more than a small minority of Americans would defend the presence of violent criminals in our midst, regardless of their country of origin!
But there is a way to disagree, and our founders made it a matter of (hopefully) inviolable law!
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Notice that interesting word? "Peaceably!"
Physical interference with the legal activity of government or, for that matter, regular people, crosses the line, and is not protected by the United States Constitution. Our founders would have recoiled in horror had it been suggested to them that violence is a legitimate expression of discontent with an elected government. Any comparison to our revolution is specious and ahistoric. The British ruled us from afar, without any provision for representation or redress. That's the difference, and it is profound.
Violent protest should be met with immediate and overwhelming force. Tear gas, bean-bag rounds, batons, water cannon, bayonet lines...whatever it takes to disperse and render ineffective the attempted violent overthrow of our government and the legal structure of our republic!
Because that's what it is...insurrection, revolt revolution, civil war...call it whatever you wish, but it is the theft of our collective freedoms in service to a minority's belief in their own political philosophy.
Demonstrate, write your newspaper, vote, call your representatives, go door to door explaining your political philosophy. That's all marvelous, even if most people will disagree. But the second violence is used, it loses the protections of our Constitution and becomes law breaking thuggery, and I and many Americans firmly support instant and aggressive action to end it!
Hickory shampoos for the win!
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!
The Morning Report — 1/27/26
—J.J. Sefton
Good morning kids. Remember back in the halcyon days of Barack Hussein Obama when he proposed the creation of some kind of a domestic national security force that was to have more funding, perhaps even double that of the Defense (now War) department. Try as I might, I'll be damned if I can find an actual link to that scheme. I know I'm not imagining it, and if anyone can find it, just send me an e-mail or put it in the comments.
Update, Here is a link Obama's Civililan National Security Force, and thanks to commenter Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy!
Be that as it may, the jug-eared bastard was actually on to something, especially given the sucking chest wound to whatever is left of our Republic as founded that is Minneapolis Minnesota. Speaking of the Republic as founded, perhaps one of the jewels in its crown that made it a milestone of human societal advancement that defines the phrase American exceptionalism (that we as a people and society are the exception to the tyranny and despotism that came before us) is that of free speech and that we must tolerate even the most repugnant and abhorrent of views of our fellow citizens — also makes it one of if not its greatest Achilles heels. When the abuse of free speech leads to the kind of violence we are witnessing, it tears at the very fabric that is supposed to bind us together.
The Left is so fond of trotting out the Chestnut that "The Constitution is not supposed to be a Suicide Pact." Well, they're right about that and the longer we are forced to tolerate a political party and movement that seeks the destruction of our Republic by any means necessary, then we face the prospect of national assisted suicide if not fratricide at the hands of our supposed fellow citizens.
Along with Islam, I assert that Leftism is not compatible with an advancing, Western Judeo/Christian society. Its twisted vision of a society based on the bloody failure of Marxist/Leninist Communism/Socialism must be torn out root and branch from the American political and cultural landscape or it will be our undoing. Period full stop. A bitter irony is that those who have benefited mightily from America and free market capitalism have an enmity for both that is beyond comprehension.
Sunrise Movement is bankrolled by some of the country's most prominent nonprofit organizations, including Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. The Minneapolis hotel smashed up overnight by anti-ICE rioters was on a target list created by the Twin Cities chapter of Sunrise Movement, a radical group funded by some of the country's most prominent nonprofit organizations, including George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation.Video footage shows dozens of anti-ICE rioters descending on Home2 Suites by Hilton near the University of Minnesota late Sunday night. The group used noisemakers and pounded on trash bins before turning violent—the rioters hurled items at people, smashed windows, destroyed the hotel’s façade, lit fireworks, and graffitied the building. As they attempted to force their way in, those inside were forced to use two vending machines to block the hotel’s entrance.
Why are at least two people dead and multiple federal law enforcement officers injured?What broader principle are Democrats, liberals and leftists rioting over in Minneapolis?
. . . The broader consistent principle at stake isn’t federalism: it’s leftism. The entire political and cultural machine that has been mobilized over Minneapolis opportunistically supports wielding federal authority over states and state rejection of federal authority on immigration law only when the end result, whether state or federal, is open borders and mass illegal alien invasions.This is true in all areas. The Left has no legal, let alone constitutional, principles, only goals. . . What this means in the broader sense is that we are not a nation of laws, but of leftists.
The Left does not believe in or follow any laws or principles other than its own politics. There is no rule of law (and certainly not of the Constitution) that applies consistently at all times. Laws are just a means to a leftist end. If a law is momentarily suited to that end, it will be upheld and suddenly trumpeted as the great pillar of democracy and all that separates us from the beasts. . . Don’t get the idea that the Left doesn’t believe in anything. It believes in a great many things. But those things don’t include the Constitution, the rule of the people, any laws that they don’t make and any limitations on their power to fundamentally transform America and the world. Everything else is transactional and disposable. . . America will either have the rule of law or the rule of leftists. That’s what this is about.
Daniel Greenfield gets totally gets it.
May God bless every bullet from every barrel of every ICE agent's weapon. May they find their mark right between the beady eyes of every brain dead zombie programmed by the Democrat Left to destroy us.
Here's to the founding of the Tailgunner Joseph McCarthy Defense of the Republic Department. Amen.
Have a great day.
On a personal note, today is Holocaust Remembrance Day and my thoughts turn to my mother of blessed memory who somehow survived Mauthausen, the labor brigades and a death march before finally making it to America to become an American and indeed a truly great one! God bless the Angels who the Lord sent in the form of the GIs from the 11th Armored Division who liberated her and her family.
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
- What the civil war in Minneapolis is really about.
A Nation of Laws or Leftists
- “I will not perform anesthesia for any surgeries or procedures for MAGA. It is my right, it is my ethical oath, and I stand behind my education,” Florida nurse Erik Martindale recently wrote on Facebook. “I own all of my own businesses and I can refuse anyone!
After the post went viral, Martindale conveniently claimed he was hacked on Facebook and Instagram. Sure you were.
The left is truly sick for threatening to deny medical care — and wishing physical harm — to people they disagree with (Do like Muslim doctors do to Jews and shoot air or rat poison in their veins - jjs)
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Daily Tech News 27 January 2026
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- Intel's new B390 integrated graphics, featured in certain Panther Lake laptop processors, are genuinely a huge leap forward. (Notebook Check)
Previously the best mainstream integrated graphics were found in AMD chips, like the 780M and 890M units that are included in a three nominal generations of processors. Intel's latest graphics unit runs rings around them - 50% faster or more.
AMD still holds a convincing lead with its Ryzen AI Max family, but those are not cheap or widespread.
The one major catch here is that the B390 is only available in laptops with soldered memory. No exceptions. If you need user-upgradable RAM you get graphics running at one third the speed, half the speed of comparable AMD systems.
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Overnight Open Thread [01/12/2026]
—CBD
[Photo courtesy of Weasel Studios, ©2026]
Gazing up into the night sky seems elemental, for reasons I do not understand. Perhaps it is the wonder of the vastness of the universe that attracts us, or maybe just that it is simply beautiful!
We have a fair amount of light pollution (what a silly phrase), so while we can see the beauty of the heavens, it is nothing like looking up during a cold dark night, far from the lights of a metropolitan area.
Sadly, our fixation with modern phones and the admittedly impressive cameras built into them have made photos such as the one above a rarity for most people. I am sure many of you have tried to take photos of the moon with your phones, and it simply does not work!
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No Digital Footprint Cafe
—Ace
Cotswold, England
From @ComradeArthur, a horror story about a man with no presence on social media.
This dog's motivations are inscrutable.
Dachshund tests the stairs for safety.
You: I'll spend $30 on a cat toy and be a real hero!
Your Cat: Go *** yourself, asshole.
When your dog escapes but he's still a good boy.
The toy they really want? The box the toy came in.
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JD Vance: California's Fraud Dwarfs Minnesota's
—Ace
Maybe Minnesota's $9 billion in fraud is what we speculate we'll ultimately find, while the current known fraud is, what, a billion? He seems to mean we know California is defrauding the US for $7 billion and the ultimate tally will be much higher.
Vice President JD Vance revealed that about $7 billion worth of fraud has been discovered in California.
"I think we have a fraud problem that is much worse than California than it is in Minnesota," Vance said in an interview Thursday, noting the head of US Small Business Administration gave him the shocking news.
"This is unfortunately a problem that is much bigger than Minnesota."
The vice president also said efforts to block immigration enforcement were a uniquely blue-state phenomenon, adding that some Democratic-led states are engaged in a "small-scale civil war" with the federal government over immigration.
...
The Trump administration has also paused federal child care funding to Minnesota, blaming alleged fraud in daycare programs, and has imposed new documentation requirements -- including attendance records and receipts -- before releasing payments to any state, CBS reported.
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Vance pointed to Don Lemon and other protestors storming a church in Minnesota as well as the killing of Renee Goode, saying "a small band of very far-left people" are trying to make ICE "the ultimate enemy," including through assaults on officers and raids on churches.
"It's absurd," he said. "It's added a lot of chaos."
The Democrat Party is causing the chaos, to create an argument for returning them to power-- "We'll stop the chaos."
But you're the ones causing the chaos.
It's like the old bit about the man who murders his parents, and then pleads for the mercy of the court, saying that he's an orphan.
The Democrat Party has created a huge block of voters dependent on their enabling of fraud at an industrial scale. Looters are now a huge political constituency.
And to make that point: You can't cover stories in Minneapolis without fraudulent Somali "day cares" and "patient transport services" in the background of your photos.
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Stephen Colbert's Ratings Hit New All-Time Low
Update: Washington Post Braces for a FIFTY PERCENT Cut in Jobs
—Ace
Remember, six months ago, in the immediate aftermath of his cancellation, Colbert's ratings rose based entirely on Sympathy Viewing and liberals all claimed he was going to build the show into a juggernaut that CBS would have to un-cancel.
I've got a special delivery: Six barrels of 100% pure pesticide-free Nope Juice.
The Stephen Colbert ratings freefall has reached an undeniable breaking point. As The Late Show with Stephen Colbert approaches its already-announced cancellation, the program is now posting record-low January numbers, marking one of the steepest late-night declines in recent television history.According to Nielsen data reported this week, Colbert's show is averaging roughly 285,000 viewers in the crucial 25--54 demographic, putting it on track for its worst January performance ever in the category that advertisers actually care about. With just months left before the curtain closes for good, the ratings trajectory suggests viewers have been checking out long before CBS formally pulled the plug.
Stephen Colbert Ratings Hit Historic Lows in Key DemoWhile total viewership erosion has been gradual over the past several years, the collapse in the 25--54 demo tells the real story. Late-night television lives or dies by that number, and Colbert's January performance places him firmly near the bottom of the competitive pack.
The show's demo average now sits far below what the franchise once delivered during its peak years -- and even trails where The Late Show performed during periods widely considered transitional or unstable. In practical terms, this means fewer ad dollars, weaker affiliate confidence, and little justification for long-term investment.
For a host once positioned as the undisputed leader of late night, the falloff is stark.
Cancellation No Longer Feels Abrupt -- It Feels Inevitable
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With Colbert's final shows scheduled for May, the ratings collapse has reframed the narrative entirely -- and it directly contradicts the wave of progressive outrage that followed the cancellation announcement.
Many left-leaning voices rushed to denounce CBS's decision as politically motivated, even attempting to cast it as retaliation linked to President Trump. But the January numbers tell a far less ideological story: an unmistakable audience collapse.
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The Stephen Colbert ratings collapse is more than a single show's problem. It highlights the fragile state of late-night television as a whole -- particularly for hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers who have leaned too heavily into predictable commentary rather than entertainment.Colbert's record-low January figures now stand as a blunt data point: viewers have moved on. And with cancellation already locked in, there is no runway left to reverse the trend.
Speaking of cancellation: The Washington Post continues losing money and Bezos is going to put the paper through another round of massive layoffs.
I missed the scale of the coming layoffs: up to H A L F of all leftwing layabouts may be fired.
Paul Farhi @farhipPer former colleagues at the @washingtonpost: In a Zoom meeting today, Post foreign staff was told by editors that up to *half* the Post’s newsroom will be cut imminently. Biggest cuts to foreign and sports staff.
Sickening.
Brian Stelter whines that Bezos isn't being a good "steward" of the Washington Post.
Jon Podhoretz responded that he's not a "steward," he's the owner.
But the bratty, underperforming losers at the paper think that Daddy Warbucks should just keep bailing them out forever.
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Former Conservative Home Secretary Suella Braverman Defects to Reform, Denounces UK Tories as Traitors
—Ace
Suella Braverman had been Secretary of the Home Office (one of the top positions in government) under former PM Rishi Sunak. She was kicked out of the office for speaking two truths the conservative party had declared heretical:
1, that unlimited third world migration constitutes an "invasion," and
2, that it is evident that the police punish native Britons much more harshly than foreign invaders, and this constitutes "two-tier policing."
So she's always been more #based than the average inbred paper-pusher in the "conservative" party.
But she was loyal to the dying Conservative Party.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has accused the Conservatives of "betrayal" as she became the latest MP from the party to defect to Reform UK.She is the third sitting Tory MP to join Nigel Farage's party in the last eleven days, and takes Reform's tally of MPs to eight.
At a press conference following her defection, Braverman said she had felt "politically homeless for the best part of two years" pointing to differences over areas including Brexit and immigration.
Her defection comes hot on the heels of Robert Jenrick and Andrew Rosindell, who also left the Conservatives earlier this month.
Responding to her defection, the Conservative Party said it was "always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect".
As you know, the dying establishment's main weapon is left's weapon of denunciation and defamation:
The party's initial statement also said: "The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella's mental health, but she was clearly very unhappy."They later issued a corrected statement which removed the sentence, saying the original lines were "a draft version" which had been "sent out in error".
Braverman said the reference to her mental health was "a bit pathetic" and "more signs of a bitter and desperate party that seems to be in free-fall".
...
She accused the Conservatives of failing on Brexit while delivering "out-of-control immigration" and high taxes.
She said "the final straw came in the last few days" as there appeared to be a "concentrated effort, a witch hunt to hound out right-wingers".
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In addition to the four sitting Conservative MPs who have now switched to Reform, around 20 former Tory MPs have made the move since the general election, including former ministers Nadhim Zahawi, Nadine Dorries and Jake Berry.Henry Smith - one of those ex-MPs to make the switch - said Braverman had tried to "steer the last government in a Conservative direction" but had been "very much stopped in her tracks".
Speaking to Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live, the former Crawley MP said that while the Conservative leadership "might be making noises to the right", many Conservative MPs were "quite frankly more comfortable in a much more Liberal Democrat position".
I saw a Lotus Eaters video in which they predicted -- or put down as a prediction for a 2026 prediction Bingo game -- that the "conservatives" would wither away down to their most liberal members, at which point they would just merge with the Liberal Democrats. As the BBC points out above, that's all they are now anyway.
Braverman denounced the remaining "conservatives" as cucks for the liberal globalist one-world maxi-state. Or "wets," as she called them.
She now says the Conservatives are "too weak to save themselves, let alone the country"....
She was not offered a position in Kemi Badenoch's shadow cabinet, and became a vocal critic of the party's record in office on immigration, net zero and what she branded "woke" thinking.
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At a press conference alongside Farage, she dismissed her former party as dominated by "centrists" and "One Nation wets".
"Wets" has a specific meaning in British politics. I guess we'd call them "RINOs."
Google AI:
In British political slang, "wets" referred to moderate members of the Conservative Party, particularly under Margaret Thatcher, who were seen as weak, unprincipled, or too willing to compromise on her strict monetarist and spending-cut policies, contrasting with her hardline "dries".The term, used pejoratively by Thatcher and her supporters, described those who opposed her tough economic medicine and favoured more consensus or less drastic reforms, like reducing government spending and challenging unions.
Key Aspects of "Wets":
Origin: Popularized by Margaret Thatcher in the late 1970s/early 1980s to criticize internal party dissent.
Meaning: Lacking firmness, being effete, ineffectual, or weak in character and resolve.
Policy Stance: Opposed to Thatcher's radical economic agenda, including spending cuts and confronting powerful unions.
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Contrast: Directly opposed to "dries," Thatcher's loyalists who fully embraced her free-market principles.
The first video below is her full 18 minute speech. If that's too long, check out the clip from the press conference she gave after her defection. It's a lot punchier.
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New Details on Church Invasion Prove It Was a Straight-Up Hate Crime
—Ace
Tyler O'Neill's thread has the supporting charging documents.
This behavior would not be tolerated if a mosque was invaded.
Tyler O'Neil @Tyler2ONeilHORRIFYING NEW DETAILS
The invasion of Cities Church was even worse than we thought.
Agitators blocked stairs so "parents were unable to get to their children" at Sunday School.
One told a kid, "Do you know your parents are Nazis, they're going to burn in hell?"
...William Kelly, "DaWoke Farmer," shouted, "This ain't God's house. This is the house of the devil."
About 50 members of the congregation were "stuck" towards the front of the church. Not only did the agitators take over the service, but they "made it nearly impossible for parishioners to get out and leave."
One woman broke her arm.Congregants "were terrorized, our children were weeping, college students and young women were sobbing, it was impactful and it will take time to work through."
An agitator "continued to scream in the faces of young children while they were crying."Nekima Armstrong, a main ringleader, said that @citieschurch
"cannot pretend to be a house of God while harboring someone who is directing ICE agents to wreak havoc upon our community and who killed Renee Good."
Make no mistake: this church invasion was an atrocity.Sadly, Democrats like @Jacob_Frey, are carrying water for the agitators. Judges denied arrest warrants for 5 of the 8 charged defendants.
But @HarmeetKDhillon says this isn't over. Stay tuned.
The Researcher @listen_2learn19h
Compare and contrast what these criminals did and how they were quickly released from custody to what they did to the J6ers who simply walked through the Capitol.
The two-tiered system of injustice is going to destroy our country.
As gay sex assailant Don Lemon declared -- and he was privy to the intentions of the invaders, being part of the plot himself -- the entire point of the exercise was to "traumatize" the church-goers. Including the children.
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Walz Agrees to De-Escalate His War Against the United States? Or... Not?
—Ace
Apparently Trump and Walz had a phone call.
I'm not sure what Walz has agreed to -- maybe letting ICE pick up wanted illegals from their jails and courtrooms?
Or is it Trump who's backing down and needs Walz to provide him cover by pretending to have given up something?
Trump here says that "we're looking for all criminals" in Minnesota's "possession," but I don't see any claim that Walz actually agreed to this.
Walz says that Trump agreed to an "investigation' of ICE agents. Again, I don't see any actual agreement that Minnesota will actually cooperate with ICE. Walz just says he's working to "reduce the number of federal agents in Minnesota," not "reduce the number of foreign pedophiles, killers, rapists, and gangsters."
Walz' office said the call was "productive.""The Governor made the case that we need impartial investigations of the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents, and that we need to reduce the number of federal agents in Minnesota," his office wrote in a release.
Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both Minnesota residents and U.S. citizens, were fatally shot and killed by federal immigration officers in separate incidents in Minneapolis.
Trump agreed to talk to the Department of Homeland Security about ensuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is able to conduct an independent investigation, Walz' office said, and also agreed to look into either reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota or working with the state "in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals."
I don't know if there's any actual agreement here. This might be the typical result of diplomacy, wherein all parties just celebrate the fact that diplomacy occurred.
Ringleader Behind the Somali Fraud Scandal Says There's No Way that Tim Walz and Jihadi AG Keith Ellison Didn't Know She Was Stealing a Quarter Billion Dollars
—Ace
That's what I say, too.
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